R Is for Rocket

by Ray Bradbury

Aici sunt tigri este o culegere de povestiri science fiction a scriitorului Ray Bradbury. Ea cuprinde cincisprezece povestiri apărute anterior în alte culegeri, precum și două povestiri neantologate anterior.
1. R de la rachetă (R is for Rocket)
2. Sfârșitul începutului (The End of the Beginning)
3. Fluierul de ceață (The Fog Horn)
4. Racheta (The Rocket)
5. Cosmonautul (The Rocket Man)
6. Merele de aur ale Soarelui (The Golden Apples of the Sun)
7. Detunătura (A Sound of Thunder)
8. Ploaia cea lungă (The Long Rain)
9. Surghiuniții (The Exiles)
10. Aici sunt tigri (Here There Be Tygers)
11. Geamul de culoarea căpșunii (The Strawberry Window)
12. Balaurul (The Dragon)
13. Darul (The Gift)
14. Gerul și focul (Frost and Fire)
15. Unchiul Einar (Uncle Einar)
16. Mașina Timpului (The Time Machine)
17. Freamătul verii (The Sound of Summer Running)

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Classics, Anthologies

184 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1962

About the author

Ray Douglas Bradbury was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction.

Bradbury is best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and his short-story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and The October Country (1955). Other notable works include the coming of age novel Dandelion Wine (1957), the dark fantasy Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) and the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992). He also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space. Many of his works were adapted into television and film productions as well as comic books. Bradbury also wrote poetry which has been published in several collections, such as They Have Not Seen the Stars (2001).

The New York Times called Bradbury "An author whose fanciful imagination, poetic prose, and mature understanding of human character have won him an international reputation" and "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream".

Reviews

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ray Bradbury, as always for me, alternately moves me gently out of my comfort zone or comforts me.

Read this primarily for R is for Rocket, short story winner of a 2019 Retro Hugo award

[George K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Πέμπτο βιβλίο του Ρέι Μπράντμπερι που διαβάζω και δηλώνω ξανά αρκούντως ικανοποιημένος και, φυσικά, μαγεμένος από την απίστευτη γραφή του και την ικανότητά του να δημιουργεί κάθε είδους συναισθήματα και εικόνες μέσα σε λίγες σελίδες. Τούτη η συλλογή διηγημάτων μπορεί να είναι κατά τη γνώμη μου ένα κλικ πιο κάτω από την καταπληκτική συλλογή "Ο εικονογραφημένος άνθρωπος" που διάβασα και απόλαυσα πέρυσι τον Αύγουστο, όμως χωρίς αμφιβολία έχει να προσφέρει και αυτή ενδιαφέρουσες ιδέες, όμορφες εικόνες και ποικίλα συναισθήματα. Η πλάκα είναι ότι τέσσερα από τα διηγήματα του συγκεκριμένου βιβλίου τα διάβασα και πέρυσι, μιας και υπάρχουν και στο "Ο εικονογραφημένος άνθρωπος" (πρόκειται για τα "Ο πύραυλος", "Ο άνθρωπος των πυραύλων", "Η ατελείωτη βροχή" και "Οι εξόριστοι"). Και το πιο αστείο είναι ότι τρία από αυτά τα διηγήματα ήταν από τα αγαπημένα μου εκείνης της συλλογής! Μάλιστα, το ότι είναι από τα αγαπημένα μου, αποδεικνύεται από το γεγονός ότι μου θύμισαν αμέσως κάτι, από τις πρώτες κιόλας προτάσεις, ενώ έχουν περάσει τόσοι μήνες από τότε! Ας πούμε ότι δεν τα μετράω τώρα (αν και τα διάβασα και τα απόλαυσα εκ νέου), οπότε τρία άλλα διηγήματα που μου έκαναν μεγαλύτερη εντύπωση από τα υπόλοιπα, στη συγκεκριμένη συλλογή, είναι τα εξής: "Η σειρήνα της ομίχλης", "Ο ήχος μιας βροντής" και "Εδώ θα υπάρχουν τίγρεις".

[Harry Kane · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely thin hardcover with illustrations lived in my room through my childhood and teenage years. At least once a year I would revisit 'R is for Rocket', again and again listening to the forlonrn blare of the preshistoric monster from the deep, fly in Bodoni's virtual rocket, pop 'food pills' and race to the local space-port to watch rockets blast off.
Some day I'll try to pay my respects by writing fiction in which people travel through space in rockets, it rains on Venus, Mars has crumbling crystal cities, and boys dream of flying through space. But this can only happen when I feel ready. Maybe when I'm 120.
Thank you, Ray Bradbury; you were the soul of the 20th century, and no one has stepped up to take over in the 21st.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another reread that contains some of Bradbury's best short fiction. My three favorites are FROST AND FIRE, A SOUND OF THUNDER and THE SOUND OF SUMMER RUNNING.

[Kevin Polman · Rating 5 out of 5]

DREAMERS! BE ENCOURAGED. YOU ARE UNDERSTOOD.

Ray Bradbury’s R is for Rocket is a book about and for dreamers… and those who truly desire to understand them. A common character type in his work is the wide-eyed, yearning dreamer who reaches too high, often for a dream beyond his capacity, and who inevitably teeters on the brink of success and failure.

It’s no surprise that Bradbury produced so many pieces that gave voice to themes of blue skies since he himself was a dreamer, a voracious reader and enthusiastic writer from an early age, a man who thrilled himself (and his fortunate readers) on the wild imaginings of his literary soul.

In R is for Rocket, the story “The Rocket” is an excellent example of the author’s heartfelt kindness and sympathy for — and identification with — the hopes and heartaches of a dreamer, in this case one Fiorello Bodoni, a middle-aged, married-with-many-children man obsessed with dreams of rocket travel and space exploration in the face of those who are quick to discourage him.

Excerpts from the story:

“I will ride up in one someday,” said Bodoni.

“Fool!” cried Bramante. “You’ll never go. This is a rich man’s world.” … “No! We live in shacks like our ancestors before us.”

“Perhaps my sons—” said Bodoni.

“No, nor their sons!” the old man shouted. “It’s the rich who have dreams and rockets!” … “No, Bodoni, buy a new wrecking machine, which you need, and pull your dreams apart with it, and smash them to pieces.”

The old man subsided, gazing at the river in which, drowned, images of rockets burned down the sky.

“Good night,” said Bodoni.

“Sleep well,” said the other.

I have read and loved Ray Bradbury’s stories for over forty years because his prose is beautifully delivered and because, as a dreamer myself — who often reaches too high for his own good — I identify deeply with his wonderfully tragic heroes. There were many times that his captivating tales allowed me to escape from grim childhood days and nights, and for that I say to him, now in the Great Beyond for Great Writers: “Thank you!”

This review was written by Kevin Polman, author of THE EXTRA KEY and STORIES.

[Linda Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tomorrow is Ray Bradbury's birthday. I have my own little celebration by reading and rereading as many of his books as I can get my hands on. This year there are five. I chose R is for Rocket to read first because it has The Dragon collected within, and I didn't remember some of the other stories. It's now a favorite. Bradbury is one of our more prolific and short-story-collected writers, and the older I get the happier I am not to remember all of the repeats. On the back of this hardcover first edition is the young smiling Bradbury which we don't often see. Smiling, he always is. He seemed to have hit an author photo age somewhere in the 1980s that stayed. One (smiling) in a turtleneck with a cat is a welcomed view. In this collection, there are no weak stories. Each will be someone's favorite. I have about 7. The last story "The Sound of Summer Running" is the magic of childhood that writers try to recreate, and none but Bradbury and Stephen King have pulled off well enough to make me cry, both for joy and for how hard it is to recapture that golden feeling. All these stories celebrate youth and dreams, imagination and yearning, memory and desire, long summers and high jumps. The introduction is a poignant reflection of the young boy Bradbury was - the boy who used to look at the night sky and wonder about the stars. He dedicates this collection to all boys who wonder about the stars. The only edit I'd make this book - to all people who wonder about the stars. In my profile I wrote that when I was young, I wanted to be an alien. What I truly wanted was to be among the stars. Bradbury gave me that.

[Ahimsa · Rating 2 out of 5]

So it turns out I just don't like Ray bradbury very much. I'm kinda surprised to realize it. I think it might be because he writes from the heart and I prefer stories of the head. There is a sentimentality to things like October Tree (and many of these stories) that means a lot to many people but feels contrived and cheesy to me. Where he does try to be clever (like Sound of Thunder or the Exiles) he falls well short.

Many of these stories are about nuclear families where the dad loves rockets. Or the boy loves rockets. Or So a fitting title but not a collection for me. However there were a few stories I did like--Long Rain in particular was cool. But to me, even that doesn't compare to great stories by other SF writers. So I think I'm done with Bradbury, sad as I am to realize it.

[Gică Buştiuc · Rating 3 out of 5]

I barely remember it, but I know for sure I was amazed at the time to find a boy that was as enthusiastic as me about space-travel and far-future we will never see. You can find this assertment in the short "R is for Rocket", and in other ones you can feel it, you can understand what drives most of the sci-fi readers when they dedicate their time to this weird and "seemingly" meaningless activity.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before I tell you what I thought of this book, I should note that this is only my second Ray Bradbury book, after Fahrenheit 451. I really, really loved Fahrenheit too.

This book was both good and bad, since it was full of short stories. Seventeen short stories in all and most were science fiction, Bradbury's specialty.
These were my favorites and the reasons why:

The Fog Horn - Loch Ness is in love with a foghorn. What is there not to like?
The Long Rain - By far the most horrifying of all the stories in this book. It still keeps me up at night....
The Exiles - I thought of Fahrenheit 451 when I read this. I instantly loved it.
Here There Be Tygers - My ultimate fantasy!
The Sound of Summer Running - Bradbury's way of making you see how the boy felt was so powerful.

The other stories I enjoyed, but not so much that I'll always remember them.

[Emily D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Right up my alley: a collection of short stories by a legendary sci-fi author. I had previously read “The Sound of Thunder” but it was worth the re-read. My other favorites were “The Long Rain”, “The Dragon”, “Frost and Fire”, and “The Time Machine”. Such amazing, unique ideas. Very Twilight Zone too.

[Conor Bateman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Highlights: The Fog Horn, The Rocket, The Long Rain

[William III · Rating 3 out of 5]

R Is for Rocket (first published as "King of the Gray Spaces") - 3/5
The End of the Beginning - 3/5
The Fog Horn - 3/5
The Rocket - 5/5
The Rocket Man - 5/5
The Golden Apples of the Sun - 3/5
A Sound of Thunder - 2/5
The Long Rain - 5/5
The Exiles - 2/5
Here There Be Tygers - 4/5
The Strawberry Window - 2/5
The Dragon - 2/5
The Gift - 4/5
Frost and Fire - 4/5
Uncle Einar - 3/5
The Time Machine - 2/5
The Sound of Summer Running - 2/5

[Cleo Pau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ray Bradbury și-a scris cărticica în urmă cu 70-80 de ani, și deși nu mai sperăm să ne dăm toți cu racheta, povestirile lui încă trezesc interesul. Nu fiindcă a fost un vizionar în ale științei, ci fiindcă a evitat-o, alegând să povestească despre oameni. Și-a zis el, în epoca naivă dinainte să abandonăm visul colonizării universului: na bun, avem rachete, zburăm cu ele, dar noi, oamenii, cu ce ne vom ocupa atunci? Ne va fi ușor să luăm ceva familiar cu noi în așa străinătățuri cum vor fi sorii și alte planete? Iar cei rămași acasă, cum își vor duce viața cu cei care tot pleacă și se întorc, dacă se întorc și nu cad în soare. Putem cu adevărat să ne luăm acasa cu noi? Cam cu întrebările astea se preocupă domnul Bradbury, dar pleacă un pic mic și pe alte planete, și creează lumi stranii, care dacă par cunoscute e doar fiindcă i-au dus alții poveștile mai departe. Întreaga colecție de povestiri e o elegie dedicată aspirațiilor noastre de a descoperi ce se află în infinitul aparent al universului. Povestirile scrise mai devreme sunt un pic stângace, lucru pe care nu l-am observat la prima citire (ediția publicată sub numele Aici sunt tigri), poate fiindcă traducătorul n-a fost la fel de inegal. Cele mai târzii devin de-a dreptul poetice, cu imagini frumoase, ce conturează mai clar nostalgia în care le scaldă.

Mențiuni speciale pentru frumusețe și felul în care m-au marcat: povestea omului care creează călătoria în spațiu pentru familia lui (The Rocket), de cea cu familia care trebuie să îndure absența tatălui-soțului (The Rocket Man), cea cu soțul care înțelege și găsește un leac pentru tristețea familiei plecate pe Marte (The Strawberry Window), cea cu dinozaurul solitar ascuns de epoci în adâncuri și care își caută un tovarăș (The Fog Horn).

Ies în evidență ca povestiri SF, mult diferite de celelalte: „Here There Be Tigers”, ce poate fi privită ca o rescriere a legendei cu Calipso și Ulise, și „Frost and Fire”, unde condițiile de pe o planetă au transformat oamenii într-o specie efemeridă, ce a dobândit o memorie a speciei. O idee neobișnuită pusă în scenă foarte antrenant și veridic.

Să nu uit de schița care e posibil să fi fost sâmburele din care a crescut Farenheit 451.

All thumbs up!

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bradbury will always be the quintessential space-themed sci-fi writer for me. His descriptions of space - of the feelings and dreams associated with it - are without equal, and this short fiction collection contains a number of excellent stories that epitomize his style. However, like any collection of short fiction, it does have its weak points. "Here There Be Tygers" is a great example: an ongoing analogy of an unstable planet as a woman - fickle and fake. Well, it was written in the '50s, but that doesn't make it not shitty. Still, a recommended collection for those looking to broaden their reading of classic sci-fi and a great example of Bradbury's inimitable, vast, haunting, spacey prose.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ray Bradbury was one of my favorite authors growing up, and this collection reminded me why....but I also forgot how sad some of his stories could be, so not they aren't always a picker upper. But isn't that the best thing about short stories? You can move past one and then always go back to it later.

The saddest story was "The Fog Horn" and the next saddest was "The Rocket Man"; and the most disturbing were the "The Long Rain" and "A Sound of Thunder"....my favorite and the most uplifting to me (and with the fastest pace) was "Frost and Fire".

Also, Bradbury is the only author I'll ever not role my eyes at for name dropping famous literary authors ("The Exiles").

[Sandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the stories are dated but the prose is not. If you loved the Martian Chronicles, you will love this book.

[Gert De Bie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 gun ik deze Bradbury wel, maar het niveau van de Kronieken van Mars haalt hij niet.

Onderschat de man echter niet: Ray Bradbury schrijft altijd onderhoudend, weet de mens in al zijn facetten te vangen en kijkt dikwijls met frisse blik naar de wereld om hem heen, of die nu bekend (de aarde) of onbekend is (Venus, of welke andere planeet er ook met een raket te bereiken valt.)

De R van Raket - meteen ook het titelverhaal - leidt het boekje mooi in: de droom van het astronautenbestaan, de fascinatie voor de ruimte, het avontuur en de grote jongensdromen spatten van de bladzijden af.
In een rijk scala aan verhalen onderzoekt Bradbury wat er op andere planeten zou kunnen zijn (een vluchtoord voor alle mythische wezen uit de vertellingen van de mensheid? een te koloniseren jungle omzoomd door wateren vol vijandige zeewezens?) of hoe mensen reageren op de onmetelijkheid van het heelal en de mogelijkheid dat te verkennen.
Sommige verhalen leunen aan bij mythologie, andere smaken naar fantasy of mixen scifi met beide. Soms zit er humor in de plots, soms is de tragiek onafwendbaar.

Slotverhaal Vorst en Vuur, meteen ook het langste uit de bundel - haalt absoluut het hoge niveau dat we van Bradbury verwachten: een messcherpe vertelling over het leven op een vreemde planeet dat wegens de hoge temperaturen en rotatiesnelheid veel sneller verloopt: de menselijke soort leeft daar exact 8 dagen en maakt in die korte periode een hele levensevolutie door. Bradbury maakt er niet alleen een spannende vertelling van, maar werpt de lezer tussen de lijnen door allerlei vragen over zijn eigen leven in het gezicht. Topspul was dat, 5 sterren om mee af te sluiten dus ;)

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forrest Gump was mistaken: a box of chocolates usually comes with a guide which indicates exactly what its contents include. And if you read enough of Ray Bradbury's short story collections you realize that they're like boxes of chocolates. Perusing the table of contents, the reader can recognize many familiar confections along with a few unknown flavors. But just as with chocolates, the fact that familiar flavors are included hardly detracts from our enjoyment.

So it is with this collection, which reprints quite a few of the author's classics, along with a handful of lesser works and, unusually but not shockingly, one serious misfire. Among the great many gems here are "The End of the Beginning," an extended metaphor for humanity's struggle to master the natural world; "The Fog Horn," a tale of primal yearnings; a meditation on familial love and the ultimate triumph of humanism over rationalism in "The Rocket"; a story which famously inspired Elton John to write one of his better-known hits, "The Rocket Man"; "The Sound of Thunder," an early exposition of the so-called butterfly effect; The maddening and haunting "The Long Rain"; and "Here There Be Tygers," which may have helped to inspire the episode of Star Trek: The Original Series entitled "Shore Leave." A few near-misses include the past-vs-future push and pull of "The Strawberry Window"; "The Dragon," a lightweight time-warp vignette; the somewhat maudlin nostalgia of "The Time Machine"; and the fond tale of youthful exuberance, "The Sound of Summer Running."

The rest of these pieces are less remarkable, except for "Frost and Fire," which is remarkable for all the wrong reasons. This weak earlier work (written in 1946) is by far the longest in this collection, and the most poorly dated. Without getting into spoilers, suffice it to say that it relies on scientific conjectures which must have been dubious even in its day; poor characterizations marked by themes which seem incongruous to Bradbury's larger body of work; and a plot the main points of which are easily predictable almost from the get-go. Having read a great deal of Bradbury's works over the years, I can say that this is among his weakest short stories, if not the weakest of all of them.

One glaring flaw is hardly enough to sink the collection as a whole, and even the greatest writers will miss the mark from time to time. Bradbury is unique, perhaps, in that his stories are often written with younger readers in mind, but still hold up just as solidly under the scrutiny of more mature reflection. This collection can be added to the long list of Bradbury's shorter works which should satisfy any fan of the author's oeuvre.

[Taylor McCoy · Rating 2 out of 5]

R Is For Rocket is a collection of 17 (17!) short stories by acclaimed science fiction author Ray Bradbury.

Bradbury's writing style throughout is unparalleled and remains a pioneer of the science fiction genre to date. This collection of short stories spans from the 1940's and 1950's and, while often showing multiple instances of aging, captures the heart and excitement of exploration. The volume includes all short stories about rocket ships, except for the ones that inexplicably... do not.

Consistency is the biggest fault with this book; 17 short stories in only 184 pages does not grant much room for full thought expansion. Some of the stories contained in this book are truly delightful and charming and fully deserve their inclusion; others feel like a shoo-in solely for their mention of a rocket ship.

Notable entries include the titular "R Is For Rocket", the bittersweet "The Rocket Man", and the longest story included in this book, "Frost And Fire."

[Hanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Прочла заглавный R is for Rocket. Брэдберри это Паустовский космоса, особенно если читать в советском переводе. Если верить автору, даже через много лет, когда в школе семиотика будет обыденностью, с подростками будут работать психологи, а в доме будут вакуумные лифты (что?), стать астронавтом все равно будет как вступить в священный клан, в круг избранных, ты можешь желать, но никакой инициативы, решают те, кто уже там.
Мне кажется, что сейчас обстановка не такая: космонавт это круто, конечно, но вы видели беларусов?

[Scott Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have had this book sitting on my shelf for a long time. I have taught different stories from it to my English classes over the years and finally decided to take the book camping and finish reading it. I’ve taught “The Sound of Thunder” and “Here There Be Tigers.” I will be teaching a survey course of science fiction in the coming years, so I will definitely be teaching more from this book.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

This man was an absolute literary genius.

Frost and fire will have me questioning lifespans and human perceived time for days now...

Absolutely. Brilliant. 100/100.

[Jack Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found myself deeply enamored with this time piece of a book. It's nearly impossible for someone born this late to understand the impact space travel must have meant to people in it's earliest stages. How the simple act of sending people into our sky must have felt like a defying act of gravity and God. How what once felt like stern and rigid laws would now feel like liquid boundaries to be navigated by human ingenuity and ambition. It is within this backdrop that Bradbury choses not to explore aliens and monsters and creatures, but human nature. Stories set in the distant future (the 2020s lol), in the wilds of distant planets, and the comfort of a childhood home, Bradbury weaves tales of relationship conflict, inner desires, and complex thoughts and emotions. His prose is peotic and conveys imagery so vivid that it must leave other authors jealous.

Despite being a collection of short stories this ranks among one of my favorite books of all time.

[Benjamin Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ray Bradbury was my first "favorite author."

I'm sure that's true for lots of people.

There was a bookstore in Milwaukee, somewhere on the East Side, called Webster's Bookstore, the only bookstore during my childhood to have a special section just for dinosaur books. I pestered my father often to take me there, and sometimes he acquiesced, and I would slowly make my way through the shelf devoted to prehistoric things, trying to narrow down the collection to just one book I could ask my father to buy me. (And, if I was lucky, he would say, "Yes.")

One of those times the dinosaur book was "Dinosaur Tales" by Ray Bradbury. I remember debating between choosing that book or another, and later, on the way home in the car, I started to wonder if I'd made the wrong choice. (I no longer remember what the other book was I wanted, maybe one of the Greg Irons illustrated dinosaur coloring books.) That afternoon, back at home, my father took me on the deck in the shadow of our house, and read "A Sound of Thunder" to me. The William Stout illustrations were perfect, as was my father's reading, though I wished the Tyrannosaurus didn't have to die. The surprise ending did blow my mind, though, and I've probably reread that single story more times than I can remember. Some of it I have by heart. And when I write about dinosaurs today, "A Sound of Thunder" is always in my mind.

As influential as that story was, I hadn't read much Bradbury in the past twenty years. New "favorite authors' came and went, and when I'd return to Bradbury I wasn't always happy with what I found. I'd been burned a bit by some of his later works that felt hackneyed and saccharine. My recent revisit of "Something Wicked This Way Comes" was not as magical as I'd hoped. But still, something about Bradbury is attractive. I love the lyricism, the way he plays with words, the awe that he expresses—and inspires—so effortlessly.

So, I sat down with this book. It had some of the dinosaur stories in it—my precious "Sound of Thunder" and "The Fog Horn"—plus a number of scifi-ish things about rockets, and a couple tales about summer in Green Town.

When Bradbury is good, he's amazing. I still was caught up in "A Sound of Thunder." "The Fog Horn" and "The Golden Apples of the Sun" were both equally beautiful and evocative. One of the longer stories, "Frost and Fire," had a very Edgar Rice Burroughs feel to it, with savage people lost on another world, running around naked, fighting, surviving; I enjoyed it. I didn't love everything, though. Sometimes his stories teetered too deep into sentimentality. "The Rocket," "The Strawberry Window," and "The Exiles" especially did not move me. But those were just three stories out of seventeen.

One thing I'd never remembered noticing before about Bradbury's stories is how hopeful they are. There's hardly a drop of cynicism in them. He's very earnest. Of course we will fly rockets! Of course we will settle on Mars! Of course we will zip from world to world as surely as a kid zips in new summer sneakers. His spaceships are fueled by fantasy; his dinosaurs feed on magic. He makes no conceits that any of his stories could happen. They're just marvelous ideas. And I liked that. It makes it easier to dream that way.

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just reading the story titles - drawn as they almost all are from different previously published works of varying quality (from 'good' to 'masterpiece for all time') - sends shivers of delight down my spine. This may well be because it was one of my first discoveries - for and by myself - of a favourite author who has remained so, even though I now baulk at some of his writing's typical characteristics (whimsy, romanticisation, a tendency to rococco indulgence at times - perhaps an intimation of American Gothic?).

My discovery of 'R is for Rocket' and (to me at the time) the less pleasing 'S is for Space' occurred when browsing the entire contents, book by book, of the innovative children's library section of the town library - my shelter and refuge after school from the age of eleven (the ideal age to start sipping Bradbury's Dandelion Wine and ordering from mysterious catalogues that only existed for me in RB's writing, or visiting travelling circuses that were entirely 'verboten' in my juvenile life...) That library must have had between 1,000 and perhaps twice or even three times as many books, but I'd soon scanned (at least), speed read, or borrowed every single volume suitabke for my own actual age and beyond (entire series of Biggles, Bunter, Famous Five Go..., Secret Seven, Hardy Boys, Swallows and Amazons, Just William.. [still a favourite] and a single book that changed my life, Gwyn Jones' translation / adaptation from the mediaeval Welsh of 'Tales of the Mabinogion', because it inspired me to surmount great difficulties and become a fluent Welsh speaker and the stories themselves provided me with perpetual inspiration.

But as my own (tested) reading age at ten years old was already 18+, I was soon into browsing the adult and reference libraries - for everything Bradbury, then Asimov, then Clarke, then PK Dick, then JG Ballard, then... I was away... into History, Astronomy, Physics, Egyptology, Arthurology, pre-history and ethnology, dictionaries, encyclopedias, until there was less and less time for fiction... for a while at least, until I discovered poetry and politics! I certainly didn't understand or properly appreciate most of what I read at the time but Bradbury had given me ever expanding (universal!) horizons.

Bradbury remains an author who I think deserves abiding respect, not just for thinking of young adults as he wrote and published, but for all his other forays into writing (plays, essays, radio lectures..) and his under-appreciated foresight into the damaging impact of American culture on others (and he appreciated and loved the finest nuances of cultures he visited, like a wise and amused uncle - Mexico and Ireland in particular).
'Uncle' Ray, you gave this lonely kid a good reading start in life - the very best in fact.

[cardulelia carduelis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up fairly close to an air field.
Close enough that some days, whilst walking out on the moors, my brother and I would pause and then crouch instinctively as the sky opened and giant metallic blades screamed through the air. Too low to be legal, too high for us to see the pilot's face, close enough to feel the afterburn in our sternums and send us running over the grasses, shouting with joy.
They weren't rockets, of course, but Tornado GR-4's, the wings swept, the enormous nose, the yawning air intakes.
The kind of joy, exhilaration, that those engines stirred up in me and my brother is the joy that Bradbury captures in the eponymous story of the novel. That crazed joy, the hope that you can one day be a apart of it, feeling like you'll die if you're not. He got it just right.

The rest of the collection does not disappoint either, I'm not sure if going through each story would have much merit but a couple that really stood out to me were The Fog Horn, the Golden Apples of the Sun, the Long Rain, and Here There Be Tygers. Each one is a very different take on marvel and exploration.
The Fog Horn puts to mind The Willows by Algeron Blackwood. That same creeping unease is built u p, and I was lost in the suspense of it.
Golden Apples, the Long Rain, and Here Be Tygers were more in the vein of a traditional space-faring exploration narrative but with a strong focus on charactization as well as world building. I thing what makes these stories so enjoyable to read though are how well they're put together. There is rarely any exposition, the reader is thrown right into the middle of the story, and much of the fun is figuring out what's going on.
These are masterful tales and will be a great addition to my favoruites shelf. Read them to feel that joy of childhood, that thirst and passion for the beasts of technology that promise so much.
Highly recommended.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back when I first read both of them in high school, I used to think of Bradbury in the same breath as Asimov. Only now do I see the vast gulf that separates the two. Bradbury is actually a writer, whereas Asimov was mostly an idea man.

In reading this short story collection, I'm struck by two things: a) the poetry of his words, and b) the sheer breadth of the subjects he broaches and tones he portrays. I never realized how versatile he was. A lot of his stuff is just bizarre (I'm talking about you, "Uncle Einar"), but it all deals with very real sentiments and very real human emotions of sadness, hope and nostalgia. I guess above all I would describe Bradbury as a nostalgic writer, which is ironic since he spent so much of his time writing about the future.

My favorite stories in this collection are "A Sound of Thunder," "The Long Rain," the famous "Here There Be Tygers," and the lengthy "Frost and Fire." I was surprised particularly at the last one since it seems like a fairly juvenile, middle-schooly premise ("What if humans only lived for eight days?"), yet he makes it work by sheer force of passion.

He begins the book with the weakest stories, IMO, mostly because they're marred by his stalwart faith in technology and the human pursuit of immortality. Only later in the collection does it become apparent that he is questioning this mindset, and he ends with two very earthy, non-scifi stories that deal only in pleasant feelings of childhood.

After not reading Bradbury in a long time, I think I'm going to have to go revisit more of his stuff. I encourage you to do the same!

Not Bad Reviews

@pointblaek

[Loton Cagle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this collection in 7th grade. A few years ago, I bought all the beautiful hardbound reprints from PS Press and also from Subterranean Press. Bradbury stories deserve these editions and they glorify my bookshelves now. Tragically, we just lost a giant. Ray Bradbury has passed away. I grabbed this book and read it after hearing the news.
There are great and famous stories here. The Foghorn....the story of a lighthouse foghorn singing its sad song....and calling up something from the deeps that has existed since before humankind....and it is so terribly lonely. A Sound of Thunder...a great little time-travel story famous for creating "the butterfly effect". The Long Rain....a great story too. The Golden Apples of the Sun.....a really short but brilliant piece about reaching out and not only touching but bringing a piece of the sun back....I could go on and on....every story is fantastic. The stuff dreams are made of.....The stories took me as a young boy to places of beauty and places where no boy had been before. They still touch me now just as they did way back then. There are no bad Bradbury stories or novels. He was a treasure and we shall not see his particular kind of literary treasures again. Rejoice we can still read them and find that special place that only Ray Bradbury could take us to.

[Ανδρέας Καπανδρέου · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ο Ray Bradbury – γνωστότερος για το έργο του Φαρενάιτ 451 [Fahrenheit 451] – έγραψε τα συγκεκριμένα διηγήματα την δεκαετία του 50 (και κάποια τη δεκαετία του 40) όταν στην Αμερική αναπτυσσόταν με ραγδαίους ρυθμούς η τεχνολογία αλλά και η φιλολογία που αφορούσε τα διαστημόπλοια (πυραύλους). Έτσι, πέρα από τη λογοτεχνική αξία των διηγημάτων, είναι ενδιαφέρον να παρατηρήσει κάποιος, μέσα από αυτά, τις αντιλήψεις των ανθρώπων της εποχής, για την εξέλιξη της τεχνολογίας, τα ταξίδια στο διάστημα και τη ζωή σε άλλους πλανήτες (και πιο ειδικά στον Άρη).

Δεκαεφτά επιλεγμένες ιστορίες τρόμου, φαντασίας και περιπέτειας από τον μεγαλύτερο συγγραφέα επιστημονικής φαντασίας της Αμερικής.

Η μαγευτική δύναμη του Ray Bradbury. Μπορεί να σε κάνει να δεις πράγματα που δεν έχουν δει ποτέ ανθρώπινα μάτια... να αισθανθείς πράγματα που δεν έχουν αισθανθεί ξανά πλάσματα με σάρκα και αίμα. Μπορεί να δημιουργήσει τόσο δυνατά οράματα που στην κυριολεξία χορεύουν μπροστά στα μάτια σου. Μπορεί να σε σπρώξει πίσω στις αρχές του χρόνου και τότε, ξαφνικά, χωρίς προειδοποίηση να σε πετάξει εμπρός στα απώτερα όρια του μέλλοντος. Μπορεί να σε κάνει τόσο έντονα μέρος των παράξενων κόσμων του που στην κυριολεξία ουρλιάζεις για να βγεις έξω.

[Μετάφραση στα ελληνικά: Στα χρόνια των πυραύλων / Ray Bradbury, Θεσσαλονίκη: Συμπαντικές Διαδρομές, 2011.]

[Bambino · Rating 5 out of 5]

After decades of heavy reading came some years of reading nothing.
It felt like there was nothing interesting to read, or that any book i should accept to read should necessarily change my perspective of life - this is easy when we are younger, but gets harder as the years go by.
So for the first time in my life i grabbed a science fiction book and wow! What a wonderful experience. That book did not change my life, nor did it enhance my culture much - it just felt very good to read it. I was impressed by the love that seemed to transpire in every word and by the amount of work behind it - every tale seemed to be forged with a healthy mixture of scientific rigor and a passionate desire to share a personal vision.

It seems that science fiction allowed grown people to play again. Science opened up many playgrounds of possibilities where people's imagination could run free, without fear of sharing extravagant visions because scientific plausibility served as a respectful alibi.

"R is For Rocket" is a very solid example of the wonders of science fiction. Bradbury's genius enriched our collective imagination with a fresh and unique voice, just as powerful as that of any of our great storytellers. Some of the stories in this book are absolute masterpieces.